Autumn Arrives at HC!

Yep- it's been windy and colder and the leaves are changing! Autumn's finally arrived here at HC, and I'm enjoying it. I may be one of the few students here who is happy, but the other day as I danced amidst the leaves on the quad, I realised I wouldn't have it any other way.
I love weather. It doesn't really matter what sort of weather, just weather itself. I suppose that's better than forever hating anything other than warm sunlight. (Heaven knows HC doesn't specialize in that sort of weather!)
I can't wait to have more apple pies (curtesy of a friend's mother...) and drink more hot liquids (curtesy of Merry and my ample collection of teas and sundry hot things...). Autumn is the most convienent excuse we have right now.

Books from Home

Thanks Mum!!! I loved getting this package- the books are much appreciated by me, and are seeming to wow some of the girls on the floor. :) And I've gone through a lot of German for my refresher course I wanted to do.

Be Still My Soul

They played this recording in chapel today - and it was the best chapel I think we've had yet.




One version of the text that I found:


Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change, He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
To guide the future, as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart,
And all is darkened in the vale of tears,
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay
From His own fullness all He takes away.

Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord.
When disappointment, grief and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past
All safe and blessèd we shall meet at last.

Be still, my soul: begin the song of praise
On earth, believing, to Thy Lord on high;
Acknowledge Him in all thy words and ways,
So shall He view thee with a well pleased eye.
Be still, my soul: the Sun of life divine
Through passing clouds shall but more brightly shine.

Lovely HC!

Here are some of the guys playing Ultimate on the quad. On the left is the HC Library (aka, my place of residence) and on the right is the Place of Paine! (aka, the science and math building.)

Me and another floorling, goofing off and playing fairies around a tree.

And a pretty tree already turning colours! Amazing- this was taken last week, coming out the tunnel betwixt the Music building and the chapel. (Which you can see the corner of in the right corner of the photo.)

Packages

I love packages. Last week, my dear mum sent me one that had Persuasion and other lovelies in it... which made me happy indeed.
Yesterday, I recieved one from Jhaniel. It made my day. She sent me The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, three other books, lychee candy (how'd she know I love lychee?) and tea. Not to mention bracelets and two cds. I've been listening to Princess Bride and reading the Hobbit in my spare time now. It's so relaxing... then too, that might be the tea helping as well.
Apparently, there are many Tolkien-lovers on campus as well, which makes me happy. No wonder I fit in well here with the people I've met so far.
It's like going home again, reading The Hobbit. I read it many times a year, so it's the cheapest way to go home.
Yep, I love packages. ^_^

Quick update...

Yesterday morning, I got my package in from Mum, and so was very excited over the prospect of watching Persuasion very soon. Plus, my dear mother added in the yarn I asked for, and so life is perfect. I'm still in love with my classes, and have some of the most amazing friends here. I miss my friends from home, but not so badly yet.
Soon I'll upload photos of my room, and of life around here, but only when I feel like starting the photo battle with my computer. Also, I now have a job calling alumni, and one for admissions mailing. Both are part time, but I'm really excited about them. Especially the first, since my boss is an amazing person. Yeah, so it's the girl I mentioned last time. :) Heather's pretty cool.
I mean, working in an office decorated in Princess Bride meets 007 style?
I love Houghton.

One Week In

I'm having a fantastic time here. I really can't say enough how much fun I'm having. It feels like I've known these girls for all my life.
Yesterday, I went to a Wesleyan church that's across the street from my school, which was an interesting experiance. I'd never been to a Methodist/Wesleyan church before. However, it was pretty close in form to the services I'm used to.
Plus, I've spent quite a bit of time recently in the library. I love our selection of old books- we have some that are about two hundred fifty years old. (Unfortunately, I can't take them out of the building to read them. However, I'm still allowed access as all the librarians know me.)
The one slightly embarrassing thing would be how I've now met a friend's older sister. She is either a senior, or is working on a graduate degree here, I don't remember which. At any rate, I've been told all week that I ought to meet her, and apparently, she's been told the same. This morning, I was at the library studying, and a girl came up to me.
"Ma'am, I don't mean to disturb you, but I'm trying to find a book, it'd be in the B section. Do you know where that is? Maybe you'd know where this book is."
It just so happened that I looked at that book on Friday, so I knew where it was. I just thought she was being very polite. After taking her over there, she thanked me.
"I'm just a student, and don't really have this place figured out. I don't think anyone but you librarians do. Thank you again."
Glancing at her, I realised how much she looked like my friend. "Are you Heather? 'Cause I'm not a librarian, I'm a freshman, like your brother."
Suddenly the realisation dawned on her, and we were offically introduced. As we left, the only question that I didn't ask, and really still want the answer is: do I really look old enough to be a librarian instead of a freshman student?

First Impressions

So, Tuesdays and Thursdays are my light days- my only serious commitment is Intro to Linguistics for two hours every morning. However, Wednesdays and Fridays more than make up for the lack of multiple classes on those days.
When I last wrote, I was heading to my Intro to Global Issues. So far, it's my most challenging class, but it's still interesting and I know I'll learn a lot (plus it's necessary for my degree) and thus I like it. Still, it was the only class to assign 35 pages of reading, plus a two page essay and a presentation on the first day which was due two days later. (Got it all done, too!)
My linguistics class (Tuesday) looks like it's going to be a lot of fun; difficult, but interesting and wonderful. It's important for me to find out if this is really what I want to study, so I'll probably be writing quite often about it.
But this morning my new class was Cultural Anthropology. At eight in the morning. Can you imagine how I feel about having eight o'clock classes four days a week? (CA and InLing both...) Not so very awake or thrilled. Then Dr. Arensen walked in. He's a large, rather imposing (if I were a few years younger, he'd be absolutely frightening) man who didn't seem to be the smiling sort. The whole class looked like we were about to die if he called our names. He began talking and within thirty seconds, I fell in love with the class. He's the nicest professor so far, told us all about practical cultural anthropology, explained that textbooks can't actually really teach you anything because you have to just read books and live it to learn it. It's more relaxed and studentcentric than any of my other classes. It's now my favourite class for the semester.
Oh, and I wasn't tired at all. I was practically vibrating throughout the two hour period. The rest of the day went fairly well, but nothing has topped it yet.

And I'll end with a few things that he said which I madly scribbled into the margins of my notebook.
"Everyone knows a lot about something."
"Learn not because you have tests or it's demanded. Learn because you want to learn it."
"Learn from people - not just paper."
- J. Arensen